A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

148 AN ANTIQUARY.
liar to old Egyptian architecture, the first prin-
ciple of which appears to have been strength
and stability.
The view through the sole remaining propy-
lon at Luxor is obstructed by a shabby mosque,
which has been constructed within what was
once the peristyled court of the temple. As
it was Friday, most of the male inhabitants of
the place were at their devotions, and just as
we were about to quit the scene, the whole
congregation poured out of the mosque and
surrounded us. Such a ragged miserable set
of beings ! their appearance quite harmonized
with the Arab name of the place — El Kusr
" the Ruins," which has been perverted by
Europeans into Luxor.
We had been apprized that Signer Castel-
lari, a Roman who resides at Luxor for the
purpose of collecting antiquities, would soon
make himself known to us, and we had also
been cautioned about the prices he would ask
us for his objMs de curiosite ; so, thus forewarned,
we deemed ourselves forearmed :
but
the wily
Italian was too many for us— " he surrounded
us," as an Irishman would say. First of all,
he most courteously came to welcome us on
shore, and then he very obligingly and cleverly